The present invention relates generally to monitoring progression of Parkinson's disease, and more specifically to methods, systems, and computer program products for monitoring progression of Parkinson's disease.
Parkinson's disease affects up to 1 million people in the United States. Doctors diagnose as many as 60,000 new cases each year. Parkinson's disease is a progressive condition. Symptoms can worsen, and over time new symptoms can appear. It can be difficult to estimate the rate at which Parkinson's will progress for a given individual. The progression of Parkinson's disease is commonly monitored through periodic visits to a physician to undergo unified Parkinson's disease rating scale (UPDRS) tests. The UPDRS tests assess and rate a number of categorized symptoms, including for instance daily living activities such as walking, tremor, and dressing, and motor skills such as speech, tremor at rest, action or postural tremor of hands, rigidity, postural stability, and arising from a chair. Comparisons with previous UPDRS results allow physicians to infer the progression of disease for a given patient.